Of Swords and Bows
by Luminosit
Summary: Rework of SAO: The Archer. Of the 10,000 players trapped in Aincrad, two were given a special ability. What is this ability? Well, in this world of swords, there are two bow users. NarutoxSinon(maybe Asuna later too). OOC Characters but i'll try not to do it too much.


**Summary: Out of 10,000 players, there will be two players. Two players who will each get the same unique skill, that can only be obtained through random selection process when logging in. What is this skill you might ask? In this world of swords, there are two archers. NarutoxSinon(maybe asuna too).**

 **Hey guys, here is the rework! Or at least thats kinda what it is... So, a couple things are different from the old story. First: Kirito does not exist in this story at all, that doesnt mean I don't have any plans for Suguha, I just decided to not include Kirito into the story at all. Second: I'll be moving a bit slower after this chapter, as this chapter was rushed since I wanted to get it out as soon as possible, since I said i'd post it yesterday.**

 **Again, I am warning you that this chapter may seem very rushed towards the end of it, and you might not like where I ended it, but I just didnt know what else to do at that point. I'm still planning it out, as the end is completely different than what I had in the first story. If things don't make any sense, dont be afraid to ask as I'll be glad to answer any questions you have. This is basically the first chapter to my other story, just edited a bit and a different ending. Well before I start rambling since its 2:30 AM right now, I'll let the story begin!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Sword Art Online, as they belong to their respective creators.**

 **Now that that's out of the way...STORY START**

* * *

Game stores everywhere, were packed to the brim, each person in line all after the same goal, the popular MMO, SAO, or rather, Sword Art Online. Some had even been waiting in line 3 days prior to the game release, causing many people who walked by to hold their noses in disgust.

However, as a certain blonde haired 15 year old boy walked by these lines, he smirked and thought, ' _Heh, look at all these chumps waiting in line, I'm lucky enough to be related to someone on the development team, they managed to sneak me a copy, thanks Iruka-san'_

A few minutes after walking past that last line of people hoping to get the new popular game, he arrived at a rather small 4 story apartment. The boy had been living alone as far as he could remember, having no blood-related family left alive to take care of him.

He unlocked the door to his apartment and muttered a barely audible "I'm home." Even though he knew no one would hear it.

While his apartment was small, it was very cozy and had all the necessities he needed. The boy dropped his bag on his bed and headed back to the kitchen to make himself a light dinner.

 _'Hm, What should I have for dinner? Ramen…. or Ramen…?'_ He thought to himself with a light chuckle as he prepared his godly feast.

As he was waiting for the water to boil, decided to pick up the cartridge case the game came in and leafed through the manual to see if anything changed. One line in particular caught his attention on the first page.

"Congratulations on becoming one of the 10,000 players for Sword Art Online! Celebrating the release, we have decided to give two random players in the game a unique ability of sorts. This unique ability allows the character to be able to use Bows as a weapon."

"Hmm… Interesting… only two in the whole world? Well then maybe I'll log in sooner than I planned." The blonde muttered quietly to himself as he went to grab his finished Ramen.

Walking over to his bed, he placed his copy of SAO inside the NerveGear, and slid the bulky helmet on and tried to find a comfortable position. With a grin on his face he spoke two words:

"LINK START!"

As a multitude of colors flashed before his eyes and several words popped up quickly before disappearing again.

' **Complete Upload.'**

' **Checking status…** '

' **Checking complete.'**

' **Log in/Register?'**

He lifted one hand, marveling at how natural it felt to move within the virtual world, and touched the **Log In** button.

' **Language: Japanese'**

' **Account: Naruto** '

' **Password: ********* '

 **Creation Character:**

 **Beta test data still available.**

 **Would you like to use it?**

 **Yes/No**

 **Enter Now?**

He smirked as he contained his excitement, to be in that world again… "Yes." Little did he know, this one word, would cause an event that would change the rest of his life.

* * *

 **Floor 1 – Town of Beginning Nov. 6, 2022**

As the newly named Naruto loaded into the game, he blinked a couple of times to fully adjust to his new settings. His character took the exact shape as his normal appearance in real life which consisted of his blonde hair and blue eyes with a 5'10 height setting.

Instantly a message popped up right before his eyes

" **CONGRATULATIONS! You are one of the two special characters to receive the unique ability: Archer!"**

Naruto's eyes went wide in shock; he had definitely not been expecting this to happen to him, given his luck in the real world. He shook his head and tapped the 'OK' button on the screen, and was given his starting items, which consisted of light leather armor, a short training bow, a quiver filled with 30 arrows, and a small short sword

"Huh, wow, guess I do have some good luck after all"

Without thinking on it anymore, Naruto quickly turned on his heels and ran down an alley, not realizing that he had been spotted by a girl who had short blue hair that spiked slightly in the back

"Wait! You there with the bow!" She called after Naruto, who in turn stopped to look at someone who called at him

The girl with the blue hair jogged up to him and placed her hands on her knees, panting slightly, before calming her breath.

"You seem like you know what you're doing, so it's obvious that you're a beta tester, not only that but it also seems like I found the second person," She paused to hold up her bow, "Who has this"

Still recovering from the shock of finding the other player who obtained the same message as him, he looked around to see if there were being watched, before replying.

"Yes I am a beta tester, and it does seem as though we both received the same items, but how may I help you?"

"Well I was wondering if you could show me the basics, since I really don't know what to do…" The girl muttered slightly embarrassed.

The blond in front of her raised an eyebrow.

"You do know that since these items were added for the official release only, I wouldn't know how they work…" Naruto started, before being interrupted by the girl once again

"That doesn't matter! We can both figure out how to work these things, other than that, I really don't want to play alone…" the girl pouted after saying this, while giving him this infamous puppy eyes.

Naruto pinched the bridge of his characters nose, before sighing in defeat.

"Alright, follow me, by the way, the names Naruto"

The girl's face immediately broke into a smile, knowing that she had gotten herself some company for the start of this game.

"Thank you so much Naruto-san! You can call me Sinon!" Sinon called out in a slightly cheerful voice.

"Please, just Naruto is fine; I was never one with formalities"

"Ah, okay then. Well, lead the way Naruto!"

* * *

 **Floor 1 – West Field**

One hour passed, with both Naruto and Sinon taking the time to get used to their new bows. Naturally since Naruto was a beta tester, he knew how skills worked in the game, and had easily gotten the first two skills given down, being piercing shot and double shot. Piercing shot was a skill where one arrow was fired; however, this one arrow had extreme piercing ability that is said in the description to be able to pierce through the highest armor at the max level. Double shot on the other hand, was a skill where not one, but two arrows were fired at once, not with the piercing ability of Piercing shot, but it allowed for more damage to one target, or similar damage to two targets.

Sinon groaned in frustration as she missed another shot on a wild boar.

"This is impossible; it's extremely hard to control this!" Sinon shouted as she was just about ready to throw her bow to the ground.

Naruto grinned before looking back at her stance, the thing was, and she was being too impatient when it came to releasing the bow skill

"Sinon, try placing the arrow, and then pull back, but instead of just releasing it immediately, wait for the motion input to recognize that you are ready for a skill, then pause for just another moment, and let the skill explode"

Sinon looked confused at this, which Naruto noticed.

"Just watch me" he told her quickly

Naruto placed an arrow ready to fire, and pulled the string back as hard as he could, leaving it there for a half a second, before the arrow started to glow a light green color. Finally he released the arrow, which flew straight at a boar that had just spawned and pierced right through it, indicating that the skill he used was piercing shot.

"There, now try it, but slowly"

Sinon did the exact same thing that Naruto had done, except her arrow had taken a lightly colored red glow, and when she released it, the arrow flew straight at the bow, and once it hit the boar, it knocked it off its feet and sent it flying several feet back. This showed that her skill was neither piercing shot nor double shot, but was another of the beginner skills, power shot.

"Great job Sinon! Practice like that and you'll be set for the rest of the time you play." Naruto smiled as he praised his new student highly, causing said student to slightly blush in embarrassment.

"Thank you Naruto, if it wasn't for you, I probably would still be back in the Town of Beginnings, not knowing what in the world I was supposed to do."

Both smiled at each other, proud of their work in such short time. Speaking of time, Sinon took a look at her clock as she pulled up the menu

"Oh my, its 6:00 PM, I better go make some dinner for myself, Hey Naruto, do you mind if I add you? I'll be on after I finish eating"

Naruto thought about it for a bit, before nodding and pulling up his menu. Soon, in front of Sinon, a window popped up.

'Naruto has requested to add you as a friend. Accept/Decline'

Sinon quickly pushed the Accept button, and smiled before waving goodbye.

"I'll see you in about an hour or so!"

With that she opened up her menu and logged out.

Or rather, that is what should have happened.

"Eh? There's no logout button?" Sinon asked out loud in confusion.

"Huh?" Naruto asked, "You might be overlooking it, just open up your menu and it should… be… here… where is it?"

True to their statements, as they opened up their menu, right below the settings where there should be a logout button, there was a blank space that could not be interacted with.

"Do you think it's a bug?" Sinon asked, slightly scared.

"Possibly, however if it is, the whole server should be freaking out about now, did you try to contact the GM?"

"Yes, but so far, no answer"

Naruto rubbed his chin in thought, looking perturbed.

"Well the GM should conta-" before he could finish he was interrupted as a blue circle enveloped them both in a blue light, before teleporting hem to the center of the Town of Beginnings.

' _Group teleport?'_ Naruto thought, as he looked around, seeing multitudes of blue circles appear throughout the Town of Beginnings. Looking to his right he noticed that Sinon had a confused look on her face while looking around at everyone being teleported to the location. He decided to grab her attention by placing a hand on her should which made her jump slightly.

"You scared me!" She exclaimed while pouting at him.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, but it looked kind of funny to me" He responded to her with a laugh, causing her to look down at her feet in embarrassment. Naruto grinned at his new friends reaction before he noticed a bright red ' **WARNING'** sign flashing in the sky.

The sign flashed a few more times before it enveloped the whole virtual sky. Soon a red liquid that almost looked like blood, seeped through multiple panels, and fell before taking shape of a huge robed figure that floated in the sky, signaling that this was the GM of SAO.

" **Welcome players to Sword Art Online, my world,"** the hooded figure spoke in a deep and booming voice.

"My world?" Naruto asked in a whisper.

" **I am Kayaba Akihiko, as of this moment the only person who can control this world,"** the hooded figure greeted.

Most of the players were confused at this, not knowing fully who this person was.

" **I know many of you are wondering about the logout button that is missing missing. I wish to tell you that this is not a defect in the game, but all part of Sword Art Online, I repeat, it is not a defect in the game."** Akihiko said making many eyes widen.

"What!? Is he insane?" Naruto shouted out, slightly scaring Sinon who was still right next to him

" **You cannot logout SAO yourselves, and no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear,"** Akihiko said before continuing, **"if one were to attempt to remove your Nerve Gear during gameplay…the Gear would sent off microwave waves that would destroy your brain and thus, ending your life."**

Many players gasped as some took a step back, but Akihiko wasn't finished.

" **Unfortunately, some players family and friends have ignored this, resulting in 213 people suffering that fate regrettably and gone forever,"** Akihiko said bringing up a screen with various pictures of recently deceased players.

"213..." Sinon whispered.

"Damn it! I don't believe it!" Naruto shouted out

" **The entire world news has already reporting this, including the deaths, thus you can assume the danger of NerveGear being remove is minimal. So relax and focus on beating the game"** Akihiko said calmly. **"But, i want you to remember this clearly, there's no method to revive someone in this game, if your HP reach zero, your avatar will forever lost and the NerveGear will destroy your brain."**

The players can only stare in shock of what Akihiko just calmly said.

" **There's only one mean to escape, and that is to complete the game. Currently you are in the lowest floor of Aincard, floor 1, if you make your way through the dungeon, and beat the dungeon boss you may advance to the next level until you reach floor 100 where the last boss is waiting, defeat it, and you will clear the game."** Akihiko said.

Many players were outraged at this, and decided to show it.

"What?! You can't do that! It's against the law!"

"100 Floors? Are you insane?!"

" **And finally, I've added a present to your inventory, please see it yourself."**

Every player, including Naruto and Sinon, opened up their inventory to see one object there, Mirror. This object confused many people who brought it out, and stared at it curiously.

Suddenly blue lights were shining everywhere as the mirror reacted to everyone looking at them. Every player had reverted to their original looks in real life, muscular people turned fat, tall people turned short, hell half of the girls turned into guys.

Naruto wasn't as worried about this as it wouldn't affect him much, but he turned to Sinon who he still had his arm around, he noticed that she had changed as well, revealing short brown hair that he felt looked cute on her.

" **I'm sure you are wondering, 'Why?' Why would Kayaba Akihiko, the founder of SAO and NerveGear do all this? My goal has already been achieved, my goal in creating SAO... it's to create it and intervene it, and now it's complete... The tutorial for SAO launching is complete... good luck players..."** Akihiko transform into a red mist and get back to the sky, making the red warning sign, disappear.

All the players look where Akihiko was before, all of them lost for words, that is, until someone dropped the mirror and let out an ear shattering scream.

"Screw you!"

"Let me out! Let me out!"

"Help us! Someone?"

"I have a meeting after this!"

"Help us! Help us!"

Naruto quickly took action and pulled himself and Sinon away from the massive crowd, soon they entered a field where there was not a player in sight.

"Listen, Sinon, I know of a safe way that could take us to one of the next towns over, knowing that quests and resources are limited people will generally rush the town of beginnings, so come with me and we'll continue on" Naruto stated with a serious look on his face.

Sinon looked from Naruto, back to the town of beginnings, and once again at Naruto, before she nodded her head, she did not want to be in this world of swords turned Death Game any longer than she had to be.

"Good, now follow me" Naruto grinned as he ran down the path, Sinon not far behind him.

A short distance ahead, both players could see a large bear spawn right in the middle of the path. However this did not slow down their run. Instead, both archers took an arrow each, pulled the strings of their bows back, and unleashed their skills on the poor bear simultaneously.

' _I will not die here, I will not let Sinon die is well!'_ Naruto thought with a burning resolve showing in his eyes.

* * *

 **First Floor – November 13, 2022**

A week had passed since they were trapped in this death game. In that week, roughly 400 more players had died after the announcement that once you died in game, you died for real. One of the first was a player named Arvin, who believed that if you killed yourself it would disconnect you and you would regain consciousness.

Throughout this week, both Naruto and Sinon had been training on various monsters found throughout the floor and were able to complete some quests to boost their levels even more. Currently Naruto was level 7, while Sinon wasn't far behind at level 5.

We find the pair of archers currently on their way to Horunka village to start a quest that would give them access to a new skill each. During the week they had found out that while they were both given bows, they were to follow different skill trees. Naruto's tree was more focused on shorter range hits that don't do too much damage, but allow him to shoot faster. Sinon on the other hand was given a longer range skill set that allowed her to shoot targets from farther away.

"Ne, Naruto, I know that we're going back to Horunka to start a quest, but what kind of quest is it?" Sinon asked her mentor and friend while turning her head towards him.

"The quest we're doing is whats known as a 'Fetch quest' in most RPGS. We have to head to the forest that surrounds it to fetch an ingredient known as Redweed Moss, which is commonly found in potions bought in the store." Naruto explained to Sinon.

Sinon hummed back to Naruto in response, while thinking back on the week they spent together. As soon as they had left the starting city, they headed for Horunka village the first time to complete the quest that would usually give players the Anneal Blade however they ended up with new bows. Naruto was given an enchanted shortbow and Sinon was given a sturdy longbow. Once this quest was completed, they both had gone back to the fields on the first floor to hunt Frenzy Boars, Nepents, and Direwolves.

Despite the fact that they had been basically living together for the past week, neither knew that much about each other. Sinon had found out that Naruto lives alone, but that was only because she had asked if he had someone that would try to remove the nerve gear from his head.

Deciding to think not too much on the past, she had noticed they arrived at Horunka village, and were just about to go to the quest start when they noticed a commotion going on in the village center. There was a group of men shouting at a hooded figure that was just standing there.

"You piece of shit! You let Nausicaa die! We should have never let you in the party." One of the men shouted.

"But I-" The figure tried to respond before they were cut off again.

"We should have just left you to die back there instead of taking you with us! We thought you would have been some use to us but it turns out you're just a weak piece of trash."

They continued their verbal assault, as towns didn't allow PKing, unless it was in a duel. However, Naruto was not having any of this.

"Hey! Jackasses!" he shouted as he approached the group with a frown on his face.

"What do you want kid? We're busy here." One replied with a scowl on his face.

"I want to know why you're surrounding a helpless person." Naruto spoke as stood right in front of them while glaring.

"Kid, this has nothing to do with you, now scram."

"Oh, I think it does. I may not know what's going on fully, but you're not even giving them a chance to respond." Naruto's glare had started to make a few of the players feel uncomfortable and back away slightly.

"You're really starting to piss me off kid." The apparent leader of the group spoke up while pushing the other players away.

This didn't faze Naruto at all as he continued to stare the man down. Sinon couldn't help but feel worried for the blonde even though she knew he could handle himself in a fight. The man continued to glare at Naruto until his faced scrunched up in annoyance.

"Tch, you're not worth the time. You better watch yourself though kid, you just made my shit list." He signaled for his men to follow him and walked away.

Naruto rolled his eyes as he watched them walk away before turning his attention to the cloaked figure.

"Hey, are you alright? My name is Naruto, and this is my friend Sinon" Naruto asked as he gestured to himself and his blue-haired companion.

Sinon smiled and waved as she approached them. The cloaked figure stood still for another couple of minutes before they fell to their knees and started to cry softly, allowing the hood to fall off to reveal a girl about the same age as Naruto and Sinon with long orange-brownish chesnut hair. Naruto and Sinon were both shocked at this action, not expecting the person they had just saved to break down crying.

"H-hey… it's fine, they're gone now. We're here to help you." Naruto was not used to this type of situation living alone and not having much interaction with the opposite sex.

Sinon on the other hand being a girl herself understood what the girl was going through, and lowered herself so she was sitting right next to the girl. She then wrapped an arm around her shoulder in an effort to comfort her.

"Now now, let it all out, you must have been really scared." Sinon frowned as she tried to comfort the other female. She was almost cornered in a similar way when Naruto was off buying supplies for them to go hunting with, but luckily Naruto had gotten back before they were even able to start anything.

Naruto looked away, unsure what to do in this situation. He was about to turn away to try and find something else to do to make it seem like he wasn't flustered, but then a hand reached out and grabbed his pant leg.

"Thank you…" The girl said softly before she wiped her tears and looked up at him.

"A-ah… it's no problem, uhm…" Naruto paused, subtly asking the girls name. The girl took notice instantly.

"Asuna. My name is Asuna."

* * *

 **Godddddddddd, I wish I didnt want to rush myself, as I would have taken the time to plan this out and everything, but I really wanted to get this out to you guys :(**

 **So I left you at a point where I thought itd be good to end, since it Introduced Asuna (something I didnt do in the other story). I know its a horrible ending to the chapter, but I honestly was losing focus as I was writing this, and I promised to myself that I would post whatever I finished before I went to bed.**

 **I hope you enjoy this and I'll see you guys in the next chapter!**


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